San Diego County Biographies
PEDRO J. AGUIRRE
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
PEDRO J. AGUIRRE, member of the firm of Aguirre & Dowell, Mexican and American
custom-house brokers and commissioners, was born in Westport, Jackson County,
Missouri, June 25, 1864, his parents being Ephraim and Mary E. (Bernard)
Aguirre; the former was born in the city of Mexico, and when thirty years of age
was killed by the Indians on the Mexican border. His grandfather, Pedro Aguirre,
was a native of Spain and was a large land-holder and farmer in Mexico, and
became a citizen of America by reason of the Gadsen treaty. The mother of the
subject of this sketch was born June 23, 1844, in Saint Louis, Missouri,
daughter of Jacob Bernard, a native of Richmond, Virginia, born in 1800. Mr. and
Mrs. Aguirre were married on the 26th of August, 1862. They had four children,
namely; Pedro J., Ephraim B., born May 12, 1865, in Los Cruces New Mexico, and
Stephen N, born in Westport, Missouri, February 4, 1867.
Pedro Aguirre crossed the plains from Kansas City to Los Cruces, New Mexico,
when only three years of age. They returned in March, 18--, and in 1867 came
back again. Mr. Aguirre received his education in Lawrence, Kansas, and in
Arizona. While at the latter place he had charge of his uncle Pedro Aguirre's
stagecoach line. Afterward he was elected treasurer of the city of Tucson and
held the office from 1866 to 1867, when he came to San Diego and became
connected with the International Company of Mexico; he acting as their
translator. He then formed a partnership with Mr. Dowell, which now exists, and
has since been interested in promoting trade with Mexico. He made an extensive
trip through Mexico last spring in connection with this business. The result has
been a large amount of trade attracted to San Diego.
Mr. Aguirre is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Knights of
Pythias, and belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is a gentlemanly
young man of good business qualities.
Source: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of
San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower
California, from the Earliest Period of Occupancy to the Present Time.... -
Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. pp 343